Coping strategies for victims of farmer–herder conflicts in Ghana.

Abstract

Farmer–herder conflicts occur in many agroecological areas in Ghana. These conflicts are often violent with devastating consequences. Interestingly, many victims of farmer–herder violence still live in conflict zones despite the dangers and threats to their lives. In order to survive in such situations, some coping strategies are needed. The study aims to provide a context-specific understanding of how conflict actors emotionally, cognitively, and behaviorally cope with the effects of violent conflicts in their own ways. The study is a qualitative inquiry that uses a phenomenology design, with farmer–herder conflicts in the Asante Akyem North District as a case study. The study purposively and by snowball techniques selected key informants and victims from both the farming and herding factions. The study found that religion, nonforced migration, working harder, sociocultural support, avoidance, and economic strategy were the six primary coping strategies utilized to manage the psychosocial stressors connected with farmer–herder conflicts. The importance of delving into this aspect of the conflict is to gain a nuanced understanding of coping abilities and capabilities of conflict victims. The study also revealed the resilience of the conflict actors and recommends psychosocial healing for the victims.